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This Baby’s Corrective Helmet Is Fit for a Jedi, Thanks to Dad

Star Wars might just be the biggest family-friendly film of the decade, if parents have anything to do with it. Jonathan Moxey is one father and fan who’s figured out how to turn his love of the force into something special for his kids — by turning his son’s corrective helmet into a Star Wars tribute.

Moxey’s son, Jack, was born with craniosynostosis, a skull condition that causes the premature fusing of his head plates. As Moxey explained, Jack’s head was growing from front to back instead of all around, requiring surgery and for him to wear a corrective helmet every day until he is a year old. With nine months of helmet use ahead and Star Wars fever at an all-time high, Moxey saw the perfect opportunity to merge the two: He decorated four of Jack’s helmets with custom Star Wars designs.

Moxey told Babble:

“We realized that if Jack was going to be in a helmet for most of his first year, we might as well have some fun with it. Seeing people light up when they saw a baby in an X-Wing fighter helmet was always entertaining.”

Moxey shared Jack’s R2-D2, Luke Skywalker, Biggs Darklighter, and Jek Porkins helmets on Instagram to the delight of parents and Star Wars fans everywhere. Moxey’s creative helmet hacks even inspired other parents of children with similar conditions to make the corrective helmets special for their kids. Jack is now 16 months old and has past the one-year helmet mark, and the “force” behind the Star Wars helmets seemed to do the trick — his dad says he’s walking and talking and getting into everything.

Moxey may have had a special motivation for his Star Wars project, but he isn’t the only parent getting in on the act. Before Halloween, a mother from Colorado made national news when she created homemade Star Wars costumes for her 5-year-old twins. And in the past week following the much-anticipated movie release, family fandom has reached its peak. Star Wars fan and “Lunchbox Dad” Beau Coffron made an edible Star Wars lunch for his kids, and famous Facebook dad Mark Zuckerberg dressed his new daughter up as a little Jedi (and his dog, too).

What is it about this iconic movie that continues to bring families together? For starters, there’s the nostalgia factor that every parent from today’s generation can relate to — we spent way too many weekends holed up in the family den watching The Empire Strikes Back. Now that we have kids and a new Star Wars movie has been released, it’s become the great equalizer. Kids still love this classic, and parents love it even more because we get to watch it with our kids.

But there’s something even more amazing about this Star Wars connection that’s going on behind the scenes: Parents like Moxey are using the movie to include kids of different abilities. We’ve seen parents construct elaborate and amazing Star Wars costumes for children in walkers and wheelchairs, and Luke Skywalker himself even reached out to include young fans in the hospital.

If your kids haven’t been bitten by the Star Wars bug yet (or are too young to see the movie), there’s still plenty of time to turn them from the dark side — the next Star Wars movie comes out in 2017.

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Content provided on this site is for entertainment or informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical or health, safety, legal or financial advice. Click here for additional information.